Education: One of the Gang

Every morning, the big yellow school bus picks up Susanne Slay, 8, at
her home in suburban Crestwood near St. Louis.
The bright second-grader studies hard, plays hard, tackles one hour of
homework each night. Why is this surprising? The daughter of a sales
engineer, Susanne is a victim of cerebral palsy, wears heavy braces on
both legs.

Susanne is one of 1,500 youngsters in the first school district catering
entirely to handicapped children. There is nothing similar to it in the
U.S. Last week, as the experiment neared the end of its first year,
educators from across the nation arrived...